Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.

Archive for June 2nd, 2006

I was a little surprised by the votes of Colombians that live in
Venezuela in the Colombian Presidential election. The profile of
Colombian immigrants is not that of the Venezuelan population at large,
thus you would expect the vote to be less pro-Uribe than Colombia’s
numbers.

The opposite was true. Uribe got over 95% in Puerto la Cruz and Merida,
over 85% in Puerto Ordaz, 77% in Tachira, Valencia and Barinas. In
Caracas in middle class Baruta he got 81.6%, while in Chavez’ stronghold
Catia, he got 66.7%. In Catia, Chavistas actually tried to get the vote
out against Uribe. All the voting centers had more pro-Uribe votes that
the National vote in Colombia which gave Uribe the victory with 62% of
the vote.

Different socio-cultural patterns or do Colombians simply count the
votes correctly? Or both?